Texas Proud
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
- Messages
- 17,266
OK... some venting here...
I live in Texas and we pay a lot of our taxes with property taxes... so it is important to get a low valuation on your home. We have the ability to protest our value...
I have now done this the last two years... and this is a rigged system...
I bought the house a little over a year ago... and they had the price at say "Y"... I purchased at 91% of that price... but when I went in, they did NOT want to reduce the price because they value as of Jan 1.. They said it would be an argument for next year.. I had to go before a review board and they voted to lower the price... Just for some perspective, the house was one of the highest per square foot in the neighborhood... I got it down to 'average'.
This year, I took a look at it appears that the whole neighborhood was reduced about 9%.. (no thanks from the neighbors... they probably don't know it was me who did it). But, I am not back to being "high" in the neighborhood. (just to put in perspective, I am #35 of 155 based on per sq. ft. of the streets around me). I went to argue that my house was not valued the same as other house around me. The law says that your property should be similarly assessed with other properties... I had a lot of evidence that mine was to high.
So I go in and the guy who works for the district agrees and gets a cost per sq. ft. for the other houses... but then averages that with my current value... keeping me higher than average... I said I would go before the review board again....
NOW... here is what pisses me off.... I showed that if you took all houses... the value would be X... but I showed that the house right next door is about 5% lower than X (all this is per sq. ft.)... and a house across the street is almost 7% lower than X... and I took a sample of houses all around the neighborhood and came up with the .95X... so I thought I had it in the bag..
The guy from the district pulls up a slide and shows that compared to THEIR comparables my house is worth 1.09X (which is higher than what I paid for it)... but that with the evidence that I presented they said it was 1.03X... Now the board votes... and two voted for 1.03X and one voted for the 1.09X... WTF I mean.... X is based on 155 properties... follow the frigging law.. in fact, based on the law I proved that it should be .95X...
So now I will have to pay about $250 to $300 more in taxes... SOOO, now I have to waste my time to protest again next year... or hire one of the tax protest firms who take 1/2 of your savings...
What a bummer...
I live in Texas and we pay a lot of our taxes with property taxes... so it is important to get a low valuation on your home. We have the ability to protest our value...
I have now done this the last two years... and this is a rigged system...
I bought the house a little over a year ago... and they had the price at say "Y"... I purchased at 91% of that price... but when I went in, they did NOT want to reduce the price because they value as of Jan 1.. They said it would be an argument for next year.. I had to go before a review board and they voted to lower the price... Just for some perspective, the house was one of the highest per square foot in the neighborhood... I got it down to 'average'.
This year, I took a look at it appears that the whole neighborhood was reduced about 9%.. (no thanks from the neighbors... they probably don't know it was me who did it). But, I am not back to being "high" in the neighborhood. (just to put in perspective, I am #35 of 155 based on per sq. ft. of the streets around me). I went to argue that my house was not valued the same as other house around me. The law says that your property should be similarly assessed with other properties... I had a lot of evidence that mine was to high.
So I go in and the guy who works for the district agrees and gets a cost per sq. ft. for the other houses... but then averages that with my current value... keeping me higher than average... I said I would go before the review board again....
NOW... here is what pisses me off.... I showed that if you took all houses... the value would be X... but I showed that the house right next door is about 5% lower than X (all this is per sq. ft.)... and a house across the street is almost 7% lower than X... and I took a sample of houses all around the neighborhood and came up with the .95X... so I thought I had it in the bag..
The guy from the district pulls up a slide and shows that compared to THEIR comparables my house is worth 1.09X (which is higher than what I paid for it)... but that with the evidence that I presented they said it was 1.03X... Now the board votes... and two voted for 1.03X and one voted for the 1.09X... WTF I mean.... X is based on 155 properties... follow the frigging law.. in fact, based on the law I proved that it should be .95X...
So now I will have to pay about $250 to $300 more in taxes... SOOO, now I have to waste my time to protest again next year... or hire one of the tax protest firms who take 1/2 of your savings...
What a bummer...